Josh Young's cousin recounts alleged weekend assault

Court records say Young punched John Michael Robertson, Cassi Gouker's boyfriend, in the face last Friday.

Wednesday, April 23rd 2014, 4:00 pm EDT by Gil Corsey

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Josh Young returned last weekend to the neighborhood where his 14-year-old stepbrother was savagely beaten to death three years ago. What happened next has the teen facing new criminal charges.

"John was in the garage and he went back there to talk to John, you know, how y'all do or whatever," said Cassi Gouker, Young's cousin.

She refuses to come from behind the door and at times her story wanders. But this is Cassi Gouker's account of what happened Friday when her cousin popped in at her south Louisville home.

"John....saw him draw back and hit him. And so he ran and was trying to get in the house because the whole house was open, so little Josh wouldn't get in to me," Cassi Gouker said.

Court records say Young punched John Michael Robertson, Cassi Gouker's boyfriend, in the face last Friday.

Robertson testified against Young last summer.

"He told me that him and Trey went down to the ditch to smoke some weed. He asked him what time it was, and then he hit him with the bat," Robertson told the jury in Young's murder trial in August 2013.

"Mr. Young, you are charged with retaliating against a witness in the legal process and assault in the 4th degree," a judge read in Young's arraignment Wednesday morning.

Wednesday's arraignment marks Young's second in just three days.

The 18-year-old was already behind bars, accused of punching and choking his girlfriend.

The incident at his cousin's apparently happened on the same day.

In fact, the ditch where Liberty High School students discovered Trey Zwicker's body in May 2011 is just one door down from John Michael Robertson's home.

"John, do you want to talk to us at all about what happened?" asked WDRB's Gilbert Corsey.

"No, not now," he responded.

Cassi Gouker says before Friday, she hadn't seen Young since the Dr. Phil show, when a polygraph test said she lied to police when she said Young admitted to killing his stepbrother.

"Are you telling the truth now?" asked WDRB's Gilbert Corsey.

"Oh yeah, I have always been," she insisted.

Josh Gouker, Young's father, eventually confessed to the crime.

Cassi says she's scared for her safety now and wants the family drama to end.

"I'm concerned because I'm like a sitting duck right now, but hopefully I'm protected in some way with the law," she told WDRB.

"It would be in his best interest not to stop by here ever again."

The judge set Young's bond on the latest case at $10,000 full cash.

Young is due back in court May 1.

WDRB reached out to Josh Young again Wednesday and he declined our request for a jail interview.